Nancy Keenan is a Mole
[UPDATE: Welcome Firedoglakers! Come for the politics, stick around for the For Better or For Worse deconstructions!]
I’m a little late to the table regarding the new atrocity that choice sellouts NARAL are backing: the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, a Republican bill that “would require doctors to provide fetal pain information to women seeking abortions when fetuses are at least 20 weeks old, and to offer women fetal anesthesia at that stage of the pregnancy.” However, “Offering fetal pain relief in the fifth or sixth month, when brains are too immature to feel pain, is misguided and might result in unacceptable health risks to women, the authors said.”
So basically, it’s more scare tactics from the pro-birth crowd, efforts to manipulate women into keeping babies they don’t want.
As usual, NARAL is providing cover for the GOP, with self-described “red state roots” Nancy Keenan defending the bill. This provides cover for wavering Democrats to vite in its favor.
Keenan is well-aware that the end goal of the pro-birth wingnuts is fetal personhood. But as she did with Alito, Roberts, and Joe Liberman, Keenan is selling out her pro-choice constituency. This is why I won’t give any money to NARAL.
Adding some fuel to the fire, it’s not well-known that the local affiliates of NARAL aren’t so overjoyed with Keenan’s brand of bending over and grabbing the ankles leadership.
Back during the Lieberman election, I learned that NARAL was endorsing Rape Gurney Joe. That made me really angry, so I dashed off an email to some friends in Connecticut, cc-ed to Carolyn Treiss, Executive Director of the Connecticut affiliate.
To: info@pro-choicect.org
Subject: Lieberman endorsementCT NARAL:
I am appalled and embarrassed that you endorsed Joe Lieberman for Senate.
As you well know, Lieberman believes that Catholic hospitals in Connecticut have the right to deny emergency contraception to rape victims. That’s why REAL pro-choice activists call him Rape Gurney Joe.
Your organization sat by while Samuel Alito garnered Joe Liberman’s vote for cloture, the only vote that mattered in the nomination. Alito’s hostility to Roe v Wade is legendary, yet you support Joe Lieberman, who helped put Alito on the bench. For that matter, he helped put Roberts on the bench too, and yet you support Lieberman.
Your behavior is despicable: I cut NARAL off my list of charities after Alito, and made sure I cc-ed my friends and family in Connecticut. Today I am cc-ing them again: do not vote for Joe Lieberman, and do not give ANY MONEY AT ALL to Connecticut NARAL. CTNARAL will not use your money wisely, as they proved during the Alito nomination.
Melissa and Melanie, please pass this email along to your friends and family: make sure that they know that CT NARAL let down all friends of reproductive rights in Connecticut.
I for one have not forgotten.
Brendan Skwire
Philadelphia, PA
Ms. Treiss wrote back almost immediately, and gave me a scolding I richly deserved. Turns out I was wrong about CTNARAL (but as you will read, not wrong about the National Organization):
Dear Mr. Skwire,I feel that I must make some important facts clear to you before you continue to spread misinformation about NARAL Pro-Choice CT. We are the CT Affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America. We operate as an independent entity and receive no funding from the national organization. Our state affiliate did NOT endorse Joe Lieberman. In fact, our state affiliate CANNOT endorse in federal races because we do not have a federal PAC registered with the FEC. We do, however, have a state PAC which may only make endorsements in state races. I have attached our voter guide so you can see that there is no mention of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s federal endorsements.
Furthermore, our state affiliate plays no decision making role in NARAL Pro-Choice America’s endorsements. However, in this particular race, we sent a memo to NARAL Pro-Choice America making our recommendation that they NOT endorse Joe Lieberman, because we in this state do not feel that he has represented pro-choice people in CT, mainly due to his failure to support a filibuster on Alito and his insensitive and damaging statements against our EC in the ER bill. NARAL Pro-Choice America obviously did not agree with our recommendation. But, as I have already stated, we have no power in their decision making process.
I would also encourage you to go to www.connecticutchoicevoice.com. On that site you will notice my name and the names of almost the entire Board and PAC of NARAL Pro-Choice CT. I and members of my Board and PAC have attended numerous Ned Lamont fundraisers and events, and the campaign is well aware of my organization’s support, despite the actions of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Furthermore, you need only do a blog search to see that our affiliate’s position has been widely discussed on www.firedoglake and other progressive blogs.
So I must take issue with your assertion that NARAL Pro-Choice CT supports Joe Lieberman. And in the future I hope you will do your research before trashing a small organization that works very hard on a very small budget to protect and further women’s reproductive freedom.
I hope you will pass this email along to all of your friends and family in CT as easily as you did with your email to me.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Treiss
Carolyn M. Treiss
Executive Director
NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut
135 Broad Street > Hartford, CT 06105
(860) 524-1086
I mailed out an apology:
I will pass along your response, and thanks for the
update.The email was inspired by your parent organization, NARAL, which sent me a truly offensive email urging me to vote for their slate of candidates. The email included an interactive map. When I clicked on Connecticut, the candidate was Joe Lieberman. There
was no mention at all that CT NARAL does not support him.I apologize for sending out misinformation, but I also want to point out that I received this misinformation from NARAL, which made no mention that the CT affiliate does not support Lieberman.
Considering how much of my own money has been given to the organization, as well as efforts made to sign petitions, make phone calls and travel to DC to march, after NARAL’s betrayal on Alito and Roberts, you’ll have to excuse my haste to slam NARAL whenever I get an opportunity.
Treiss responded:
Of course NARAL Pro-Choice America is not going to publicize the fact that the state affiliate doesn’t agree with their endorsement. It undermines their credibility and ability to raise money. We also disagree with their endorsements in the Murphy/Johnson and Simmons/Courtney Congressional races,
but they don’t tell you that either.If you really want to support choice, you should send your money to your state Affiliate, NARAL Pro-Choice PA. They are ones doing the work on the ground in PA and are not corrupted by DC beltway politics. And your friends should become members of NARAL Pro-Choice CT.
So there you have it: as at least this NARAL Executive Director puts it, the national organization is “corrupted by DC betway politics.” It is the state affiliates that are doing the work on the ground. It is disappointing, therefore, that in DC the work these choce advocates do is undermined by Nancy Keenan, who helps put anti-choice people like Samuel Alito on the bench, puts people like Rape Gurney Joe Lieberman in the senate, and supports legislation that makes it even MORE difficult for women to obtain the unpleasant but medically necessary procedure called “abortion”.
Given her boasts about her “red state roots”, given her support for Lieberman, given her failure to do anything substantial about Alito, and given her support for the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act”, I arrive at one conclusion: Nancy Keenan is a mole. She undermines NARAL’s mission regularly and publicly. As the face of NARAL, this is unacceptable. Why is she still leading the agency, given her failure to, y’know, “stand up for choice”?
Nancy Keenan is a disgrace, and until she steps down or is removed from NARAL, I will have nothing to do with the organization. And if that hurts local affiliates, so be it. Actions, as they say, have consequences. Give money to Planned Parenthood instead (and don’t forget the Free Emergency Contraception they’re giving out today), or any of the groups listed here.
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December 8th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
[...] UPDATE: It looks like at least a few of the state affiliates have figured it out. In other depressing reproductive rights news, Uganda doesn’t look like it’ll be legalizing abortion any time soon, and a singer in Indonesia is being criminally investigated for allegedly terminating her pregnancy (sorry the link is weird; click “printer-friendly” to read the article). [...]
December 9th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Who are the board members of the “Pro-Choice America PAC”, over which state NARAL affiliates have no control? Who are the board members of NARAL itself?
Where does the PAC funding come from? Do state affiliates contribute to the PAC?